BOS_LHR

The problem is that USCIS essentially does what it wants with its data. I've been following I-130 threads for over a year now, and at no point in that time have USCIS' wildly fluctuating estimates tallied with user experience here on VJ. There has been a random smattering of approvals across the months, and at first it was mostly CSC blazing through its petitions, but now there are additional outliers. Three Texas approvals have happened for mid-June filers this week, for instance, while earlier filers at the same center are skipped over. Things like that lead me to believe there's still some kind of data manipulation going on. I think if USCIS wants its average processing time to be 5 months again by May, they can make it happen -- but not by processing everything that's out there. They'll achieve it by balancing the processing of older petitions with newer ones to meet their numbers, a "fake it 'til you make it" sort of strategy. I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but there is simply no way they're adhering to a first in, first out policy, and it's hard not to see a certain intent in that. The average processing time shouldn't be relied on as an indicator of their true performance, and the current processing date is useful only insofar as it allows petitioners to file service requests. I hope that these figures will become more meaningful in the future, but I recommend looking at the processing volume and trends chart alongside user timelines on VJ to make guesses at what's going on.

Actually, the processing time went from 7.4 months to 8+ months. I expect a date of Feb. 14, 2013 in the update. I'll be pleasantly surprised if that's not the case. We'll also get the new trend/volume charts, which I think are even more important information for us to have than the new date.
Just about time to get that letter together, everyone.

The first letter did receive an indirect reply. After we voiced our concerns, USCIS issued a letter to stakeholders the next day addressing them.
Essentially contact info for some important/influential figures at USCIS was dredged up and members made suggestions for who to add to the list. On the chosen dates, as many of us as possible faxed these letters directly to recipients' offices in addition to emailing them copies. If you want to do some background reading, here are the threads where the letters were authored, recipient list discussed, etc.: First, second, third.

Yep, all they care about is the processing date. None of those other averages mean anything to them, nor are they basis for filing a service request.
Here are the first, second, and third letters. The first two were coordinated in advance, but the third was in reaction to the updated data they posted last month and we pulled that effort together in just a day.

They won't get a flood of service requests if they keep holding back the processing date to keep very few people eligible =\ Filers in March and April are struggling with this now -- they've been waiting a hugely long time, but that date is set to Feb 13 so they have no recourse available. The average processing time says 8.7 months, so they've passed that, but USCIS will won't allow service requests because they're treating Feb 13 as the only bar they've set.
Their official procedure is to process according to first in, first out. You can even find where it says so in the adjudicator's manual online. But that's blatantly not what's happening. Take a look at the CR1 timelines on VJ, you'll see approvals even within individual service centers are jumping around. The last 10 at NSC went from April, to May, to March, to May, to April. Texas is even more all over the place. There's no pattern discernible here, it's just chaos. That being the case, I don't think it's possible yet to predict what will happen for August. April filers are still significantly held up while May-July are seeing random batches of approvals. If some kind of rhythm or regularity emerges we can try to do some forecasting.
As far as a letter goes, I've been involved writing the past two and I'm happy to help with future efforts. Whether or not they result in action directly visible to us, I for one couldn't bear simply sitting through the process without knowing I had exercised every option available to me. There is no stone I would leave unturned when it comes to ending this painful separation.

The problem is that USCIS essentially does what it wants with its data. I've been following I-130 threads for over a year now, and at no point in that time have USCIS' wildly fluctuating estimates tallied with user experience here on VJ. There has been a random smattering of approvals across the months, and at first it was mostly CSC blazing through its petitions, but now there are additional outliers. Three Texas approvals have happened for mid-June filers this week, for instance, while earlier filers at the same center are skipped over. Things like that lead me to believe there's still some kind of data manipulation going on. I think if USCIS wants its average processing time to be 5 months again by May, they can make it happen -- but not by processing everything that's out there. They'll achieve it by balancing the processing of older petitions with newer ones to meet their numbers, a "fake it 'til you make it" sort of strategy. I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but there is simply no way they're adhering to a first in, first out policy, and it's hard not to see a certain intent in that. The average processing time shouldn't be relied on as an indicator of their true performance, and the current processing date is useful only insofar as it allows petitioners to file service requests. I hope that these figures will become more meaningful in the future, but I recommend looking at the processing volume and trends chart alongside user timelines on VJ to make guesses at what's going on.

My timeline also moved approval to March now. I've stopped stressing about it. I am so lucky that my husband will be able to spend 2-3 months with me during spring/summer this year. We should be together for our birthdays (first time in 8 years ever!) and for our 2nd anniversary. Life is good. USCIS is slow, but life is good. I love him and he loves me and we're happy. That's more than I can say for many couples, some that are apart and even more that are actually together.

Looks like another member started a thread explicitly to track non-transferred cases, hopefully a lot of people will get involved and share their info. Take a look: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/475552-non-transferred-cases/

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Get-Transcript

Feb. ~ June have just been merged. You can just filter our the service centers you don't want by clicking on the location column and deselecting the other service centers. Perhaps talk to the July and Aug. admin about getting access and adding their info here. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Anpi244OAt_IdGJCbzZHckUyZ0w5MjFtSXRRRFQ0M1E#gid=0

My PD is 3/20/2013 Originally I was at Lee's Summit NBC.
Transferred 11/5/2013 (date of the first notice.)
NOA2 Jan. 3, 2014.
A spreadsheet for this purpose may be more effective at keeping track of things. We may even be able to pull the information you're looking for out of the existing spreadsheets.

We believe that straightforward cases take about 15 minutes because we have a former adjudicator who was on here explaining the process and yes, 15-20 minutes was about it for a straightforward case. These facilities are not just quality oriented, they are also volume oriented. They have access to the relevant databases that they need to search to see if there are obvious red flags raised or criminal activity. They get sent to a special unit if there are security concerns, and they stay there until those concerns can be cleared. (Or not.) If they are concerned that there is not enough evidence to prove a real marital relationship, then they can send an RFE. Or they can deny it because they strongly suspect fraud.
You can't just assume because of the amount of time since transfer, that there are security concerns or complications in the file. My case was straightforward as hell, and neither of us have criminal histories of any kind, and our names are most likely not going to raise security concerns based on their similarity to flagged names, no previous marriages, married 8 years, 2 kids, no over-stays, and it still took 58 days from the time I was transferred. The cases within 20 numbers of me were all completed between Dec. 3 and Jan. 3. The ones immediately surrounding me all either got approved or RFE's either the day before me, or the same day as me. I'm certain that we weren't all waiting on someone's desk for nearly 60 days. Someone grabbed our box that morning. That's it.
http://www.visajourney.com/content/adjudicator-q-and-a

Usually they'll all update on the same day, though not necessarily at the same time. There have been some instances (like last month) where there's a gap of a couple of days between updates on the two pages. USCIS can never make anything predictable or easy.

For some reason, I was noting the date of updates since the time I turned in my i130.
Here it is-
as of duration posted on

june 30 8.4 08-20
july 30 9.4 09-17
aug 31 11.0 10-18
sept 30 7.4 11- 20
oct 30 8.7 12-19
nov 30 ???? expected soon

They were all for USC applying for Spouse at the National Benefits Center as my case stayed there until early this year where it got transferred to Nebraska

You were my first thought Kaylara I hope with this opportunity you can give a voice to all the incredible research you've done over the months, in addition to raising awareness of the huge personal tolls this process can take on a family. Good luck guys, I hope this article hits the press and finally gets people's attention!

That part has varied a fair bit. Sometimes people receive the three notices in consecutive days, others have a gap of several days. A few people have received only two notices, a few have received four. For my transfer, I received the first notice at 7:45 in the evening, the second at 7:15 the following morning, and the third electronic notice didn't arrive until days later, on the same day I received the hard copy. Don't get hung up on these details too much; if you receive the first electronic notice, you know a mailing is on its way, so keep a lookout for that and don't sweat the rest

I had an hour long interview tonight on the phone with the very nice reporter from the NY Times, and she said it's possible that they will send out a photographer. (I also told her she was welcome to use the pictures on my FB account if she thought it would be helpful. I not only discussed the details of my case, but also detailed our cumulative theories and exactly why we have them. (Proof from the USCIS's or Ombudsman's Reports data specifically, and also that we were following the transfers and approvals here. She seemed surprised to hear about Overland Park and what happened there, btw.) I also told her about the crazy RFE's, obnoxious Tier 2's, and the complete inability of the Congresspeoples or Senators offices or even the Ombudsman to help us due to them playing with the Processing Date. I even referenced the long wait that people in certain countries had with AP, and yes, even the bullshit going on down in the Equadorian consulate and the situation with the Stokes interviews down there. (Much thanks to Tbone for all of his work with informing people about that, btw. I just read all the threads on it the other day, and it was fresh in my mind.) Also I told her that several people had stated that they wanted to participate in an interview, but were afraid of possible retaliation from the USCIS. (She seemed angry at the idea that people were so scared of that; I think it really was a pretty powerful statement in and of itself.) But it is the right thing to do. (Besides, I have friends who are lawyers who I'm sure would help me out, and also two cute little blonde girls who need me to do everything I can to get their Daddy here. Cynical, maybe. Probably. But realistic, I hope.)
So, if all goes well, expect an article in the near future. Possibly with pictures. I hope I did a good job of representing the problems that we've had over the past (almost) year. And I really hope that this results in the situation as it stands being fixed.

I performed some cleaup on the sheet and added graph for transfers... Didnt want to add graph for approvals, its too painful to see...
probably some sort of batch process where they just have the system read the barcodes and then the system spits out notices... ? (like 3 for each petition.... LOL! ) Perhaps they also work with CGI federal... LMFAO... ..... too soon???

Congrats to everyone who just got a transfer!
You should receive three electronic notices. You can disregard the content of these; every transferred petition since March has received these same three notices. It's a strange quirk in USCIS' system, but these aren't important. What matters is the hard copy you'll receive in a few days. Petitions are being transferred to Nebraska, California, or Texas, and your hard copy will state which center your petition has been sent to. Best of luck everyone, and be sure to check back in to share where your petition went when you find out!

Congrats to everyone who just got a transfer!
You should receive three electronic notices. You can disregard the content of these; every transferred petition since March has received these same three notices. It's a strange quirk in USCIS' system, but these aren't important. What matters is the hard copy you'll receive in a few days. Petitions are being transferred to Nebraska, California, or Texas, and your hard copy will state which center your petition has been sent to. Best of luck everyone, and be sure to check back in to share where your petition went when you find out!

Congrats to everyone who just got a transfer!
You should receive three electronic notices. You can disregard the content of these; every transferred petition since March has received these same three notices. It's a strange quirk in USCIS' system, but these aren't important. What matters is the hard copy you'll receive in a few days. Petitions are being transferred to Nebraska, California, or Texas, and your hard copy will state which center your petition has been sent to. Best of luck everyone, and be sure to check back in to share where your petition went when you find out!

Congrats to everyone who just got a transfer!
You should receive three electronic notices. You can disregard the content of these; every transferred petition since March has received these same three notices. It's a strange quirk in USCIS' system, but these aren't important. What matters is the hard copy you'll receive in a few days. Petitions are being transferred to Nebraska, California, or Texas, and your hard copy will state which center your petition has been sent to. Best of luck everyone, and be sure to check back in to share where your petition went when you find out!

Congrats to everyone who just got a transfer!
You should receive three electronic notices. You can disregard the content of these; every transferred petition since March has received these same three notices. It's a strange quirk in USCIS' system, but these aren't important. What matters is the hard copy you'll receive in a few days. Petitions are being transferred to Nebraska, California, or Texas, and your hard copy will state which center your petition has been sent to. Best of luck everyone, and be sure to check back in to share where your petition went when you find out!

I'm thinking about sending USCIS' email to some media outlets. Now that they've made a statement and it's circulating around the internet, the combined tale of our effort and USCIS' response might be more newsworthy. I know there won't be any changes to policy as a result, but USCIS responded to pressure, and I'm inclined to keep applying it. There's more to the story than "a backlog exists" and I'm big on people/organizations taking responsibility. Thanks to USCIS I have plenty of time apart from my SO to fill, and this seems to be as good a way as any

Given the numbers should be out this week, we should start thinking about what the central focus of our next communication should be. Any thoughts? If there's no improvement in the processing times, I would guess we'd want to focus on that. I think it would be great to touch upon the disparities in efficiency between service centers, as well as the bs RFEs that Texas likes to issue. The latter would tie back into the data manipulation concerns we voiced last time, so we could make that point again for anyone who happened to be out of the office for that letter.